The
concept of a private investigator probably owes more to myth and Hollywood’s
portrayal of the pistol packing PI pounding the streets in a battered rain coat
than reality. The closest the public is likely to get to a private investigator
is to settle down to an offering from the Rockford files. The legal community,
however, regularly calls upon the service of investigation and enquiry agencies
and Murray Burton is a lawyer who knows better than most what such agencies can
offer.
Burton
is one of Hong Kong’s long term expats. ‘I came out here doing what us ageing
Hong Kong hands all did. I came out for three years and stayed forever’. He
says with a smile. This afternoon he is sporting a favourite shirt and an old
school tie and is enthusiastic to reminisce. Life in Hong Kong agrees with him
and he talks casually about the various career moves that have taken him around
the world, in and out of danger and comfortably into middle age.
Burton
chose to pursue law despite a natural talent as a linguist. He left school
conversant in a number of European languages and took almost two years out to
perfect them on the slopes of Switzerland and the resorts of France, Spain and
Northern Africa. Having achieved a fair degree of fluency in Spanish, French
and German, Burton saw little point in studying languages at university and
embarked upon a career in law. Graduating from Edinburgh University in 1970,
Burton practised in Scotland as a conveyancing and commercial lawyer for a
number of years before moving to Hong Kong in late 1976 to join law firm
Johnston Stokes & Master. The move to Asia was, at the time, to fulfill a
need for adventure and he did not plan to relocate permanently. Burton remained
at Johnston Stokes & Master for some four years.
He cut
his investigative teeth in 1980 in the celebrated MacLennan case which stole
the limelight in Hong Kong’s legal circles for months in the early 80’s. John
MacLennan, a young expatriate police inspector, was found dead in his police
flat with five gunshot rounds in his chest and lower abdomen. The death was the
source of endless speculation: murder or suicide? There are some who continue
to refuse that suicide, the official cause of death, was responsible for his
death.
The
death came at a time when The Royal Hong Police was actively targeting
individuals involved in illegal homosexual activity. In the midst of the witch
hunt, MacLennan, a closet homosexual, was found dead in his apartment the day
before he was to be publicly exposed and stories abounded about the
circumstances surrounding his death.
‘His
flat was locked from the inside and the gun was found nearby the body. Despite
a wealth of evidence suggesting that he’d committed suicide, the public was
unable to accept that he was capable of shooting himself five times’, says
Burton with a nonchalance that suggests he has told the tale on numerous
occasions. He forcefully rejects any notion of murder or cover-up. ‘A public
inquiry was set up to investigate the death and I worked for over a year as the
instructing solicitor to the then Commissioner, now Chef Justice, Sir Ti Liang
Yang. Many people with fanciful theories on the matter, barely conversant with
the facts, have long forgotten the critical evidence and the thorough
investigations.’
At the
end of the case Burton decided it was time to leave private practice. His
decision to leave the secure bosom of the law attracted a considerable amount
of comment from his friends and contemporaries. When pressed on his desire to
forsake the stability of his life as a respected lawyer for the uncertainty of
a career more myth than mainstream, Burton exudes a characteristic
self-assurdness. ‘I felt there was something more to life than being behind a desk…
I wanted to do something with more of a business focus than just giving legal
advice. I wanted the exposure to business. Having said that, I always wanted to
retain my contact with the law and my membership of the profession.’ Burton
remains a member of the law societies of Hong Kong and Scotland.
He
became an independent legal consultant for a Japanese based entrepreneur whose
principal product at the time, the Space Invaders computer game, was the
forerunner of modern video entertainment. Michael Kogan, a White Russian emigré
from Shanghai, became fabulously wealthy as his computer games took the world
by storm in the late 70’s and early 80’s. As his fortune and investments
enlarged, Burton’s role also developed. ‘I had a tripartite role, primarily as
a consultant to the family-controlled Japanese company, Taito Corporation. I
also looked after and protected the royalties earned from the video games that
were being licensed to the large American companies of the day like Atari.
Above all, I became a close, trusted family friend and advised them on family
interests.’
‘My job
was as Mr. Fixit. I would be called to fly to the likes of Guam or Hawaii,
indeed all over the world, to sort out a company or assist in closing it down
because it wasn’t making any money.’ This was a role Burton played for around
five years, during which time Kogan died. The computer games empire was taken
over by Kogan’s eldest son, who, along with Burton, consolidated the business.
At the end of the eighties, however, without the backing of his erstwhile
principal, Burton felt it was time to move on.
He
enjoyed a brief stint with the Bank of Bermuda’s arm in Hong Kong, Bermuda
Trust (Far East) Limited, which he knew well from his days as a solicitor with
Johnson Stokes & Master. His brief was to expand their private banking
practice. ‘Essentially it was a business development role which required me to
wear a private banking hat. I wandered round the streets of Taipei and Hong
Kong trying to encourage high net worth individuals to part with their money
and have them made tax efficient in offshore jurisdictions.’
The move
into the field of investigation came at the beginning of 1991 when Burton
joined the trailblazers in corporate financial investigations, Kroll
Associates. At that time Kroll, who had an office in Hong Kong since 1988, was
undergoing a period of change and restructuring. Burton was brought in to
assist as a full time consultant. Although his legal background meant that he
was sometimes called upon to act as Kroll’s in-house legal counsel, Burton’s
responsibilities centred mainly around business development and raising the
profile of corporate financial investigation agencies. ‘They were days,
and it is still true to a certain extent, when a lot of individuals and organisations
in Asia didn’t know about the industry. They didn’t know that if you had a
problem in certain areas, there were companies that could help and who had
expertise in getting information.’
Burton
also began to play an active operational role, working as a case manager on
a number of complex assignments for Kroll in the Far East, notably
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. He spent almost three years at Kroll before
joining some of his former collegues at O’Reilly Vernier & Gurka (OVG) earlier
this year. In doing so he also renewed his association with Tony Gurka, who had
at one time been appointed by the MacLennan Commission to bring in outside
investigators.
The move
to OVG has completed Burton’s move from the legal profession to operational investigations.
Almost 20 years after first setting foot in Hong Kong, he believes he has
finally found his true vocation. His present position is to promote, in Asia’s
growing markets, one of Hong Kong’s blossoming financial investigation
agencies. The OVG operation is split between two offices, with 15 staff in Hong
Kong and five in Singapore. Tong Gurka, the founder of Commercial Trademark
Services, now part of Pinkertons, heads up the Hong Kong operations, whereas
Bill O’Reilly, ex-FBI agent and former Director of Operations at Kroll, heads
the office in Singapore.
‘O’Reilly
is currently blessed with one of our more testing investigations,’ says Burton.
‘It’s an unusual case for OVG as it falls outside the regular categories of
work we undertake. We’re investigating the disappearance of a young British
university graduate who was backpacking around Southeast Asia. He was
always regular in reporting home to his parents, but the last call they
received was on Boxing Day last year. We ascertained that he crossed the Thai
border into Cambodia at a time when the Khmer Rouge were particularly hostile
towards anyone who crossed their path.
‘The
Khmer Rouge sometimes hold people as hostages for a rainy day. We’re organised
leaflet drops over Khmer Rouge territory and have taken the investigation just
about as far as we can at the moment in the most difficult of circumstances.
Of, the course young man may have fallen foul of one of the many other hazards
that remain in that war torn part of the world.’
Burton
talks enthusiastically about his new role, a role which he assures is easier
than the myths about private investigation suggest. ‘The information is
available if you know how to access it. There are hundreds of databases in the
world covering almost every subject. The emphasis in Asia is much less on
public record availability and much more on human source input, but this is
certainly not the case in the United States, where by comparison, there is a huge
amount of public record information available.
‘This is
an area which is very much low-key and very much word of mouth. ‘The nature of
the industry is secretive. Your survival depends upon confidentiality,
discretion and the way you go about trying to get information. There’s no
glossy handbook on how to be a brilliant investigator. It’s born of
experience.’ On the operational side at OVG, investigators tend to be people
with law enforcement backgrounds. ‘We’ve got people who worked for the FBI in
the States and people who worked for the Royal Hong Police Force – people who,
over ten or twenty years, have gained investigative experience, and who know
what they should be looking for and what kind of questions they should be
asking.’
As a
lawyer Burton is better placed than most to recognise the growing importance of
lawyers working with investigators and of instructing investigation agencies as
early as possible in proceedings.
Burton
thinks the future looks bright in Hong Kong. ‘I’ve always been very optimistic
about Hong Kong post-1997. In terms of the financial community, I don’t think
there’s going to be a great turnaround in the amount of international business
that is transacted on the Hong Kong stage. However, with regard to
corporate and financial investigations, it is not entirely clear how acceptable
firms like OVG will be to a new regime.’ This is not a point to dwell on. For
the ever adaptable Burton, content in his current position, change is a welcome
and familiar friend.
